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Beatrix Bloxam
Beatrix Bloxam (1794-1910) was a witch who wrote the infamous Toadstool Tales, a series of children's books featuring bowdlerised adaptations of stories from earlier works, including , which have been banned because they have been found to produce nausea and vomiting. Biography Early life Beatrix was born in 1794 to a wizard father and his wife.The Tales of Beedle the Bard, page 56 As a child, she listened at a keyhole and heard her aunt tell The Warlock's Hairy Heart to her older cousins, as well as parts of a lurid account involving her uncle Nobby, the local hag, and a sack of Bouncing Bulbs. She was so traumatised by what she heard that she was bedridden for a week. She also suffered from sleepwalking, returning to the keyhole nightly, until her father placed a Sticking Charm on her bedroom door when she went to bed. Later life Beatrix married at some point.Albus Dumbledore refers to Beatrix as "Mrs Bloxam" on pages 17-18 of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Her maiden name is unknown, as is whether or not she and her husband had any children. Beatrix's childhood experience motivated her to adapt classic stories into versions which she felt would be more suitable to a young audience.The Tales of Beedle the Bard, pages 17-18 She believed that children are extremely delicate, and that exposure to harms them, due to what she described as the stories' "unhealthy preoccupation with the most horrid subjects." As such, she reworked several of Beedle's tales, including The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, which became the story of Wee Willykins. However, she was apparently unable to think of a way to tone down The Warlock's Hairy Heart, the story which deeply frightened her as a child, as she never rewrote it. Her work was published in a series of books called The Toadstool Tales, which were universally loathed by children, and were eventually banned because they caused nausea and vomiting (ironically subverting her goal to create suitable tales for children).Famous Wizard Card (Beatrix Bloxam) Etymology The name Beatrix is derived from Viatrix, a feminine form of the Latin male name Viator, meaning "voyager.""Beatrix" on Behind the Name It may have been chosen in reference to Beatrix Potter, who wrote several classic children's books, including . The title "Toadstool Tales" may also refer to the fact that, in addition to being an author, Beatrix Potter was a mycologist. Behind the scenes *Originally, Bloxam's date of death was given as 1810 on her Chocolate Frog Card; however, when taken with a birth date of 1794, it would have made her only sixteen years old at the time of her death. To further confuse the issue, the picture on her card depicted an elderly lady, hardly a sixteen year-old. The mistake was corrected in the video game adaptation of , where she is pictured as a teenage witch. Beatrix's correct dates are listed in , where her year of death is listed a century later, in 1910. *The character of Bloxam may have been intended as an over-the-top parody of the many real-life parents and teachers who worried that Harry Potter was traumatising children. Appearances * * * * * Notes and references de:Beatrix Bloxam fi:Beatrix Bloxam es:Beatrix Bloxam fr:Beatrix Bloxam ru:Беатрис Блоксам pl:Beatrix Bloxam Bloxam, Beatrix Bloxam, Beatrix Bloxam, Beatrix Category:Bronze Chocolate Frog Cards Category:Centenarians Bloxam, Beatrix Category:Green-eyed individuals Bloxam, Beatrix Bloxam, Beatrix